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April 2008 - Posts

Trying to be clever sometimes gets me into trouble. I was planning to make a soup this week. I thought it would be a good idea to cook some black-eyed peas one night ahead of time, so that I'd be able to eat dinner at a reasonable hour when I went to Read More...

A couple of weeks ago Matthew Amster-Burton wrote about some frozen croissant dough which Trader Joe's now carries, and gave the product the thumbs up. I thought it would be nice to do breakfast at home this morning, so I decided to give them a try. All Read More...

Variations of baked chevre always haunt me. Deceptively basic, this dish really only needs a little chevre and some tomato sauce, and some fresh bread or maybe toast. And yet, I continue to succeed in finding new ways of botching a good thing. What do Read More...

As a small child, I already had vegetarian leanings, and generally refused red meat. Then, one night, my parents and I went out to dinner at their favorite nearby "fancy" restaurant, a Black Angus, where, without warning or provocation, I placed my order Read More...

Isn't this sexy? Cauliflower soup may look homely, but the most minimalist preparation of roasted cauliflower can still make heads turn. Roasted cauliflower became trendy a few years back, and I fell in love with it long ago. In my kitchen, it's become Read More...

Although bell peppers are available year-round, they're really a summertime thing. But bell peppers have been a bit cheaper than typical for this time of year, and I've noticed a few good deals. So I threw seasonality to the wind and brought a Read More...

Soups aren't the sexiest food in the world. But they can be seriously comforting. This spring, Seattle has frequently been visited by unwelcome blustery, unpredictable spring weather, punctuated by misleadingly clear and balmy days that invite unfortunate Read More...

Although I have a weakness for ravioli, tortellini, and other stuffed pastas, the prototype of stuffed pasta, gnocchi, is really the stuff of my dreams. It's alluring because, without any special equipment, one can quickly pull together a decent result, Read More...

Over the last 5 months or so, I've been stepping up my exercise routine. The last couple of years working in software during the day have been particularly bad for my waistline, and a broken foot last year kept me away from the gym for several months. Read More...